Thank you for making the decision to support our small business by choosing to buy handmade products with sustainable materials that are ethically made.
These days we hear a lot of fashion companies calling themselves “Ethical” or “Sustainable” and the different ways of producing is one of the most talked about topics in the fashion business, so in case you find this confusing let´s clear the differences.
Ethical Fashion: Refers to how the clothing was made including everything, from how the fabrics have been made to the working process and how the people who made the clothes are paid and treated, or in case of animal fibers (wood, silk etc..) to ensure they have been treated with respect.
Sustainable Fashion: Refers to the way fashion is manufactured and the effects of its production on the environment. Sustainable fabrics, the use of pesticides, the use of dyes, water waste treatment, energy reduction, recycling materials, sustainable packaging, and shipping awareness are factors to consider fashion production “sustainable”.
Slow fashion: This is related to the creation process, the design, and the quality of the products where the intention behind the production involves durable materials and timeless design.
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Do you know the difference between Bio-textiles and Recycled textiles?
Lately I hear and read a lot about Bio-textiles and the importance that they have in the world of fashion and manufacture, but at the same time we see recycled textiles in many strong brands so, do you really know the difference between them? .
Based on their nature, Bio-textiles or Bio-plastics are materials that are created from a living element – a process called bio-manufacturing, which is a crop of living organisms such as bacterias, fungi and others, that grow as if they were textile fibers -. The processes vary depending on the biological asset that is being used, fermented or cultivated in a laboratory, biological materials are reaching the world of fashion to bring an option prior to recycling.
Bio-textil suit pinterest image
Bio-textil suit pinterest image
Recycled textiles are made with fibers that already exist. Nowadays there is a lot of talk about products that have been made with garbage or recycled materials. The recycling process depends on the composition of the fabric being recycled, and while usually clothes are made from cotton, which is a biodegradable material, others use synthetic plastic, so finally the composition dictates the recycling method.
For cotton, first the clothes are separated by color, to avoid having to be dyed again, then the textiles are shredded into very small fibers and mixed to be cleaned, carded and passed to spinning or weaving. The fibers can also be compressed for the production of mattresses and various other things.
For clothing that is made of polyester, the process is different, first the buttons and zippers are removed, the clothing is cut into small pieces, these are granulated and then small pellets are formed. The pellets polymerize into small pieces of polyester, which are melted down and spun into a new fiber used to make new polyester fabrics.
small pieces of polyester /pinterest image*
cotton fibers /pinterest image*
So what is the difference? A lot! Biotextiles or Bioplastics are materials that were born to die, that´s it, they have a very short duration and then will biodegrade over time without affecting the environment. The problem is that at the moment the incubation process of the bacteria takes a long time, it is expensive, and the duration of the biological materials is only a few months. The big bet of the Bio-laboratories is to improve the process and the duration of these materials at an affordable cost so that they can be marketed more easily, while recycled Textiles are a mixture of processes that do involve contaminating agents, light and water to remake fibers with those that already exist and that are a serious problem for the environment, although there are also proposals to improve recycling systems using clean energy and strict control of water.
Now that you know the difference, what kind of textiles would you use?
VEGAN LEATHER, SYNTHETIC LEATHER, BIO-LEATHER, VEGETABLE NATURAL LEATHER AND CHROME.
We are very aware of environmental issues and responsible purchasing, but many times we do not know what the products contain and or what processes are involved before accessories reach your hands. One of the materials that I think has been super demonized is LEATHER, that’s why I am sharing this text that explains a little about each leather so you can identify them and make a more objective judgment when you buy or design.
SYNTHETIC LEATHER
Synthetic leather is produced from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polyurethane (PU), which are petroleum materials. The chemicals are used for the production are polluting and for to the synthetic contents, it takes much longer to biodegrade than other materials.
PROS: It has a very affordable price, production is very fast and there are more and more qualities that are very similar to natural animal leather.
CONS: It is not a sustainable material since it is derived from petroleum and therefore pollutes.
VEGAN LEATHER
Currently there are several producers of vegan leather which has an appearance very similar to natural leather, produced with biodegradable vegetable fibers such as cactus, pineapple, cork, wood, mushrooms, leaves, teak plant, coconut or soy.
PROS: These materials are an alternative when you are looking to biodegradable materials and reduce environmental impact.
CONS: The cost per square meter is much higher than synthetic leather, and the durability of the products is lower than animal leather.
BIO-LEATHER
Bio-leather is a material that is developed in a laboratory through cells or microbes that are fed and put at a special temperature so these microbes produce a cellulose material, which can be used as leather or something similar; It has a texture similar to plastic, no toxic substances are used in the production and it is the result of a natural process.
PROS: It biodegrades very easily as it is natural the environmental impact is very low.
CONS: It is a very new technology and is not very developed yet, so the development time is long and expensive, and the durability is only a few years.
VEGETABLE ANIMAL LEATHER AND CHROME
The leather tanning process is to convert putrescible skin into rot-proof leather with a chemical acidic that prevents decomposition. In other words, it is the period of time that the animal skin is processing to transform into a leather that will no longer decompose. The time used in chrome and vegetable tanning is practically the same, the difference is in the materials used for tanning. As far as the environment is concerned, vegetable tanning is much more sustainable, since it is mostly done with natural oils and with a much stricter control of the amount of water for washing while the chromium process has toxic residues and unclean water and also needs more washes, and can be very harmful to their chromium VI content.
In recent years, leather has been highly demonized for being related to animal abuse and the mass production of animals. However, its components make it an enemy in the fight against plastic and pollution and fast fashion, because is much more durable material than any of the vegan leathers, and at the end it has a longer useful and shorter biodegradation than synthetic leathers.
Knowing this, it is a very personal decision what type of material we want to consume, it will depend on the type of brand philosophy you have, the budget you want to allocate to the materials with which you design, and in the case of consumers, the importance they give it to the price versus durability and ecological damage.
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